It’s been 15 years since the 112
\nemergency number was implemented in the European Union for all citizens to dial
\nit in case of emergency. In Romania, last year alone, operators received over
\n12 million calls, half a million less than in 2017, a survey issued by the
\nSpecial Telecommunications Service shows. Almost half of the calls turned out
\nto be emergencies and were referred to the Ambulance service, Police and the
\nInspectorate for Emergency Situations ISU-SMURD. The Director of the Integrated
\nMunicipal Centre for Emergency Situations, colonel Florian Feticu, has said the
\nnumber of calls which do not signal emergencies has decreased by half and this
\nshows that Romania’s population has understood what the main aim of this
\nservice is. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, some 55% of the total number of calls to the single
\nemergency number in 2018 were non-emergency calls. There have been cases of
\npeople who dialled 112 to complain about not being allowed to return products
\nto shops, about street lighting being on, stating their wish to recharge their
\nphone cards or requesting information about the train timetable or the time of
\nthe day. There is a uniform distribution of such calls all across Romania. With only 45% of non-emergency calls, the capital city is better
\npositioned than the rest of the country, from this standpoint, although the
\nrecord breaking holder is a Bucharester who dialled the emergency number over
\n21,000 times within 10 months alone. The daily average of non-emergency calls
\nstands at 18,000. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pocketdialing situations account for two thirds of the total
\nnumber of calls. These are involuntary calls, made by people who either dial 112
\nby mistake or they forget to block their phone and consequently dial 112
\nunintentionally. Unintentional calls to 112 render the processing of real
\nemergency calls difficult. According to current procedures in such situations,
\noperators must listen to a call they have taken over for at least 15-20
\nseconds, even if they don’t hear a sound from the caller, and then they should
\ndial the caller’s number twice. The authorities draw attention to the fact that
\ntime and resources are wasted with such unintentional calls, which could have
\nbeen vital in other cases, going as far as making the difference between life
\nand death. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Of the justified calls, which signal the need for an emergency
\nintervention, most cases have been referred to the Ambulance Service – 58%,
\nPolice – 22% and ISU-SMURD – 16%. The biggest challenge by far for the three
\nmain services requested to intervene in emergency situations was the
\ndevastating fire which ripped through the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest,
\nduring a rock concert, in the autumn of 2015. The authorities activated the red
\nintervention plan back then. The tragic death toll- – 64 people dead, mostly
\nyoungsters – has revealed not only corruption in the administration, which
\nallowed for the functioning of the club in improper conditions, but also serious
\ndeficiencies in the healthcare system in Romania. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s been 15 years since all EU citizens were offered the opportunity to dial the 112 emergency number<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":80667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[33919,39569,33917,39570,29468],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-80666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-33919","tag-dispatch-calls","tag-emergency-number","tag-involuntary-calls","tag-smurd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n